Center for Neurogenetics, Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.
Mol Psychiatry. 2022 Mar;27(3):1416-1434. doi: 10.1038/s41380-021-01316-6. Epub 2021 Nov 17.
Due to an inability to ethically access developing human brain tissue as well as identify prospective cases, early-arising neurodevelopmental and cell-specific signatures of Schizophrenia (Scz) have remained unknown and thus undefined. To overcome these challenges, we utilized patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to generate 3D cerebral organoids to model neuropathology of Scz during this critical period. We discovered that Scz organoids exhibited ventricular neuropathology resulting in altered progenitor survival and disrupted neurogenesis. This ultimately yielded fewer neurons within developing cortical fields of Scz organoids. Single-cell sequencing revealed that Scz progenitors were specifically depleted of neuronal programming factors leading to a remodeling of cell-lineages, altered differentiation trajectories, and distorted cortical cell-type diversity. While Scz organoids were similar in their macromolecular diversity to organoids generated from healthy controls (Ctrls), four GWAS factors (PTN, COMT, PLCL1, and PODXL) and peptide fragments belonging to the POU-domain transcription factor family (e.g., POU3F2/BRN2) were altered. This revealed that Scz organoids principally differed not in their proteomic diversity, but specifically in their total quantity of disease and neurodevelopmental factors at the molecular level. Single-cell sequencing subsequently identified cell-type specific alterations in neuronal programming factors as well as a developmental switch in neurotrophic growth factor expression, indicating that Scz neuropathology can be encoded on a cell-type-by-cell-type basis. Furthermore, single-cell sequencing also specifically replicated the depletion of BRN2 (POU3F2) and PTN in both Scz progenitors and neurons. Subsequently, in two mechanistic rescue experiments we identified that the transcription factor BRN2 and growth factor PTN operate as mechanistic substrates of neurogenesis and cellular survival, respectively, in Scz organoids. Collectively, our work suggests that multiple mechanisms of Scz exist in patient-derived organoids, and that these disparate mechanisms converge upon primordial brain developmental pathways such as neuronal differentiation, survival, and growth factor support, which may amalgamate to elevate intrinsic risk of Scz.
由于无法从伦理上获取发育中人类脑组织并确定潜在病例,因此,精神分裂症(Scz)的早期神经发育和细胞特异性特征仍然未知,因此也无法定义。为了克服这些挑战,我们利用患者来源的诱导多能干细胞(iPSC)生成 3D 类脑器官,以在这个关键时期模拟 Scz 的神经病理学。我们发现,Scz 类器官表现出脑室神经病理学,导致祖细胞存活减少和神经发生中断。这最终导致 Scz 类器官发育中的皮质区域的神经元数量减少。单细胞测序显示,Scz 祖细胞特异性缺失神经元编程因子,导致细胞谱系重塑、分化轨迹改变和皮质细胞类型多样性扭曲。虽然 Scz 类器官在其大分子多样性方面与来自健康对照(Ctrl)的类器官相似,但四个 GWAS 因子(PTN、COMT、PLCL1 和 PODXL)和属于 POUDOMAIN 转录因子家族的肽片段(例如,POU3F2/BRN2)发生了改变。这表明,Scz 类器官主要在分子水平上的疾病和神经发育因子的总数量上存在差异,而不是在其蛋白质组多样性上存在差异。单细胞测序随后确定了神经元编程因子的细胞类型特异性改变以及神经营养生长因子表达的发育性转变,表明 Scz 神经病理学可以在细胞类型基础上进行编码。此外,单细胞测序还特异性地复制了 Scz 祖细胞和神经元中 BRN2(POU3F2)和 PTN 的耗竭。随后,在两项机制性挽救实验中,我们确定转录因子 BRN2 和生长因子 PTN 分别作为 Scz 类器官中神经发生和细胞存活的机制底物起作用。总的来说,我们的工作表明,多种 Scz 机制存在于患者来源的类器官中,这些不同的机制汇聚在原始大脑发育途径上,如神经元分化、存活和生长因子支持,这可能会合并起来提高 Scz 的内在风险。
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